58 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



appearance, he said that no such bird was known in 

 the village. 



I assured him that he was mistaken, that I had 

 heard the cry of the bird many times, and had even 

 heard it once at a distance since our conversation 

 began. Hearing that distant cry had caused me to 

 ask the question. 



All at once he remembered that he knew, or had 

 known formerly, the wryneck very well, but he had 

 never learnt its name. About twenty or five-and- 

 twenty years ago, he said, he saw the bird I had just 

 described in his orchard, and as it appeared day 

 after day and had a strange appearance as it moved 

 up the tree trunks, he began to be interested in it. 

 One day he saw it fly into a hole close to the ground 

 in an old apple tree. " Now I've got you I " he 

 exclaimed, and running to the spot thrust his hand 

 in as far as he could, but was unable to reach the 

 bird. Then he conceived the idea of starving it out, 

 and stopped up the hole with clay. The following 

 day at the same hour he again put in his hand, and 

 this time succeeded in taking the bird. So strange 

 was it to him that after showing it to his own family 

 he took it round to exhibit it to his neighbours, and 

 although some of them were old men not one among 

 them had ever seen its like before. They concluded 

 that it was a kind of nuthatch, but unlike the common 

 nuthatch which they knew. After they had all seen 



